There's a chat group for pets in my neighborhood.

Don't give me that!

The landlady suddenly stood up, pointing at Lu Fang's nose with her fingers painted with gaudy red nail polish, her eyes filled with undisguised contempt.

"I don't care about your injuries or anything, I feel disgusted just looking at these beasts! Look at all this dog hair on the floor, and the stench in this house!"

"These little beasts are covered in fleas and parasites, they're filthy! Who knows if they have rabies or any other infectious diseases! And that stray cat sneaks in through the window every day, it's definitely ruined my wallpaper. I'm telling you, you have to pay me for every single one of them!"

As she spoke, she kicked the dog food bowl on the ground with her toe in disgust.

The iron bowl slammed against the wall with a loud clang, startling Charlie into shrinking further into the corner.

Seeing her harsh expression, Lu Fang's anger flared up: "The wall isn't dirty, and the wallpaper isn't damaged."

"I've been disinfecting and cleaning every day for the past few days. Besides, the stray orange cat that the neighbor saw only stayed on the windowsill for a short while. It's not as serious as you say."

"If you insist that I'm in breach of contract, I'll move out, no problem, just refund my deposit!"

"Oh, you still want your deposit back? Dream on!" The landlady sneered, hands on her hips, interrupting Lu Fang directly: "It's clearly written in the contract that if the lessee breaches the contract, the deposit will not be refunded! This is a real deposit of three thousand yuan, which is only enough for me to hire a cleaning company to do a whole house disinfection and pest control."

"So you're blatantly robbing me, huh? Three thousand yuan for disinfection? Is this house made of gold?" Lu Fang was furious upon hearing this. "I've only lived here for three months, and this dog has only been here for a few days. Besides, if you have any complaints about the house, I'll clean and fix it for you, but you have to return my deposit!"

"The money's in my hands, I call the shots. Even if you call the police, it's written in black and white in the contract, you're not in the right." The landlady rolled her eyes, picked up her small purse, and walked to the door in her high heels. She coldly stared at Lu Fang and issued her ultimatum: "I'm not here to discuss this with you today, I'm giving you a notice! You breached the contract first. My house doesn't welcome tenants like you."

"By eight o'clock tomorrow morning, take your junk and this disgusting dead dog out of here! If you haven't moved out by tomorrow morning, I'll call the property management and the scrap collectors to throw you and the dog out like trash."

After saying that, the landlady swayed and walked away with small, quick steps, not even bothering to close the door behind her.

Lu Fang didn't speak, but first calmed the somewhat agitated Charlie down, then turned around and began packing his things.

He believed that if he didn't move out by the next day, the damn landlord would really call the property management, and then there would be another round of wrangling.

But finding a place takes time. I just received my 1,000 yuan salary today and it's already going to be used for rent, and it's not even enough.

Nowadays, it's basically a one-month deposit and three months' rent in advance. A house in Tiancheng Community costs at least six or seven hundred yuan a month.

That's two thousand eight hundred yuan.

After much thought, I decided to ask Qin Zhuyan for another advance on my salary.

Lu Fang didn't have much stuff, so he quickly packed it all up. He sat on the bed, tidied his words, and then dialed Qin Zhuyan's number.

"Xiao Fang, what's up so late?" Qin Zhuyan's languid voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Sister Qin, can I get a little more of my salary in advance?" Lu Fang was a little embarrassed. He had only been working for half a month, and he was already asking for a month's salary in advance.

"What's wrong? Didn't you just get an advance of a thousand yuan today?" Qin Zhuyan asked curiously.

"It's a long story," Lu Fang sighed. "I picked up a dog a few days ago. It was badly injured, so I just bandaged it up and took it home. I didn't expect my landlady to find out. She hates cats and dogs. She just found me and said I violated the rental agreement and that I have to move out by tomorrow morning. I'd like to get some advance on my salary to find a new place."

"Tiancheng Residential Area? Who is being so unreasonable?" Qin Zhuyan was taken aback, clearly not expecting this situation.

"The landlady's surname is Zhang, and she lives in Building 15."

"Mrs. Zhang? She's a repeat offender. You still dare to rent her house?" Qin Zhuyan had lived in Tiancheng Community for three or four years and knew the landlords in the community quite well.

"What does that mean?" Lu Fang asked, completely bewildered.

"She does this kind of thing all the time. She just doesn't want to return the deposit and then finds an excuse to force the tenants to leave. She's done this to several people before."

"How can this person be like this? Is there no one who can control her?" Lu Fang said indignantly.

"This is actually just an economic dispute. She can always come up with all sorts of reasons, such as the building being old, depreciation fees, cleaning fees, and so on. She just keeps dragging her feet on paying."

"She's a local with a large family and can afford to wait it out, but those tenants are all from out of town and already have a lot of financial pressure. If this drags on, they'll eventually have to give up."

"Damn it, this is never over." Lu Fang gritted his teeth. It was more important to find a new place to live first. He would settle accounts with the landlady after he found a place.

"By the way, Sister Qin, what about the advance on wages..."

"How about this?" Qin Zhuyan hesitated for a moment on the other end of the phone: "Even if you look for a place in a hurry right now, you might not be able to find one. Even if you stay in a hotel, it will cost a lot."

"I rent the whole apartment; it has two bedrooms and a living room. I usually use the other room as a storage room."

"You've sold a lot of the store's inventory these past few days, so the room is now available. If you don't mind, you can stay here for now and then look for a place later."

"As for wages... the store's accounts are indeed a bit tight, and we can't quite make any money out. What do you think?"

Qin Zhuyan bit her lip; this decision was also very sudden for her.

She's grown up and has never even been in a relationship, let alone lived with a man.

The main reason she dared to let him move in was because the store was indeed short of funds and some of the investment had not yet been recovered. Lu Fang was also a good person.

"Is this appropriate?" Lu Fang subconsciously swallowed, not expecting things to develop this way.

"What's wrong with that?" Qin Zhuyan said. "If you're coming over, I'll pack up now and help you move. We can talk about the rest later."

Qin Zhuyan had already put it this way, so if Lu Fang continued to refuse, it would seem insincere.

He nodded emphatically: "Thank you so much, Sister Qin!"

"Okay, I'll pack up first. Send me the building number, and I'll come help you move once I'm done here."

"Okay."

Looking at Qin Zhuyan's chat avatar on his phone screen, Lu Fang felt a little unreal.

How did I end up living with the beautiful shop manager out of nowhere?!